ONBC: The opinion of one of our members was that the children went into a "real attic” to look for Mr. Grantham's watch but that "Attica" was probably a dream that one or all of the children used to work through their problems, and thus the attic took on whatever personality was needed to accomplish that goal. Is Attica a real place or did it all take place in the children’s imaginations?

GK: It can be whatever you want it to be, because once the book is written the reader’s interpretation is just as valid as the writer’s. A novel is a complete thing in itself and once in print becomes separated from the writer, hence the different slant some film makers put on the story. The film maker’s idea of what the book’s about is just as valid as the writer’s. However, if you want to know how I feel about it, I believe the attic is a supernatural world that opens up to those who are in need of it, but it is a live thing in itself and therefore has its own agendas. It can be kind and sympathetic to the problems of those who enter it, it can be dangerous, it can be vindictive, it can be whimsical. It broods and it lashes back when annoyed, like a wild creature. I think the attic prefers children, rather than adults, because children have a greater imagination span and are more readily accepting of something as eerily strange as a living attic.

You can't judge a book by its cover.

The only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story.

"Once in print it becomes separted from the writer" says Garry. This reminds me of someone who does not see his films once they are finished. It is the readers or movie goers that can draw or judge the story. Guess who??

It's just like any art -- the interpretation is based on what the viewer or reader brings to the work. That is one of the reasons that the tidbits are so valuable -- it helps us gain a broader undertanding of the book by broadening our frame of reference (frames?).

I can see how the attic can be viewed as a character in and of itself, and it is interesting to see that that is what was in the author's mind.